This invention relates to deals in social networking systems and in particular to social deals that allow participation by multiple users of a social networking system.
Providers of services and/or products offer deals to potential or current customers to entice them to make purchases. A deal is an offer to sell a product or service to a customer, oftentimes including a particular benefit available to customers who buy the product or service through the deal. For example, a deal may offer a product or service at a discounted price, such as a fixed percent of the original price or a fixed amount below the original price. A deal may offer a discount on a future purchase of a product/service upon a purchase of a similar or a different product/service. A deal may also offer access to inventory not open to the general population. For example, a deal may provide discount on a second product upon purchase of a first product. Deals are often offered by providers who are different from the actual seller of the product or service. The deal provider manages the deal purchase transaction and gives a voucher for the transaction to the customer, who can then redeem the voucher for the purchased product or service.
Providers offer deals for various reasons. Sometimes providers offer deals on products that they are trying to dispose of quickly to make room for a new line of products. Sometimes providers offer deals since they realize that users are interested in making a purchase only if there is a deal available. Conversely, consumers often closely monitor deals. Therefore, deals draw attention of users to particular products and bring the product on the radar of potential customers.
Providers are always coming up with creative ways to offer deals to get user's attention. However, if a user is not interested in a deal for a product or service, the efforts of the provider in directing these deals to the user are wasted. Therefore, providers prefer to direct their deals to users who are most likely to be interested in the deals offered in order to maximize sales of their products/services. Nevertheless, providers have not leveraged the power of social networking to make deals more effective to achieve their goals.